LONDON: Defending champion Novak Djokovic survived a series of falls on Centre Court to reach the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday with a straight sets win over Kevin Anderson.
World number one Djokovic, chasing a sixth Wimbledon and record-equalling 20th Grand Slam title, won 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 over the 102nd-ranked South African.
However, he slipped and fell on at least five occasions on Centre Court, the day after Serena Williams suffered a tearful, tournament-ending injury on Tuesday due to similar slips.
Each time, 34-year-old Djokovic dusted himself down to set up a clash against either Italian veteran Andreas Seppi or American qualifier Denis Kudla.
Despite the tumbles, the Serb cruised to victory over the man he defeated in the 2018 final without facing a single break point and committing just six unforced errors.
“I have a nice connection with the crowd,” said Djokovic.
“I also seem to be having a really nice connection with the grass. I don’t recall falling so much in the first two matches at Wimbledon previously.”
Meanwhile, Nick Kyrgios won his first match since the Australian Open, defeating French 21st seed Ugo Humbert in five sets before declaring: “Not bad for a part-time player”.
The 60th-ranked Kyrgios triumphed 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 9-7 in a match held over from Tuesday evening when the final set was level at 3-3.
“Not bad for a part-time player,” said Kyrgios who had also defeated Humbert in five sets at the Australian Open.
“Ugo is an incredible kid and I knew I was a massive underdog.”
“I got home late yesterday and was in such pain physically this morning, but it’s easy to get up with a full crowd and it was so much fun.”
“It’s a great change of scenery,” added Kyrgios who is playing his first event outside of his own country for the first time since the 2020 Australian Open.
Kyrgios shrugged off an ugly-looking fall in the 13th game of the final set when his right knee buckled beneath him.
Bianca Andreescu’s nightmare season continued when the 2019 US Open champion crashed out in the first round, losing 6-2, 6-1 to Alize Cornet of France.
The 21-year-old fifth seed missed both Rome and Madrid due to testing positive for Covid-19 and then was knocked out in the first round of the French Open.
It was the second time this month that Cornet has beaten Andreescu having knocked her out in the second round of the Berlin tournament.
Andreescu is the latest high profile women’s player to fail to progress to the second round.
Seven-time champion Serena Williams limped out of her match on Tuesday and two-time Wimbledon victor Petra Kvitova was knocked out on Monday.
Andreescu is still to win a main draw match at Wimbledon having lost in the first round as a qualifier in 2017.